Warfields-formerly Bandit Kingdoms
Proper Name: The Unified Bands of the Warfields
Population: 3,000 (65% orcs and hobgoblins, 20% humans, 5% half-orcs, 15% other humanoids.)
Ruler: Fharrek Bloodletter (NE male dwarf Fighter L12)
Government: Military dictatorship, indirectly ruled by Iuz
Capital: Law’s Forge (LT)
Other Settlements: Stahlzer (ruin)
Resources: Arms
Religion: Iuz, Gruumsh, Hextor, Erythnul
Law: CE
Those lands where the Shield Lands and the Horned Society meet have been the site of hundreds of battles, soaked in the blood of thousands of warriors who fought for as much as justice or as little as greed. No great wars have been won on the Warfields. No great monuments grace its earth. None of its battles have stood the test of time, but its reputation for violence is well earned. Many who visit these lands say the waters that lay here taste of blood and salt from the tears of widows. These are among the poorest fields in all of the Combination, second only too the wastes surrounding the Rift Canyon. The scrub that grows here is hardly fit for grazing, though some manage to raise goats here. Only the land along the Ritensa River is fertile enough for crops, yet no sane man would seek to farm those lands.
No one can remember who lay claim to these lands originally, but by the foundation of the Viscounty of Ferrond these fields already played host to lawless men and violent mercenaries. From these grew numerous rival bands, both human and humanoid, who fought against one another almost as often as they raided their neighbors. Many would offer themselves as sellswords to any cause for the mere chance to profit from the death of their traditional enemies.
The original claimant to the lands along the eastern Ritensa River has been lost to history. Since well before the formation of the Viceroyalty of Ferrond, Warfields has been a chaotic land wracked by nearly endless warfare. Situated at the crossroads of the Shield Lands, Horned Society, and the rest of the Bandit Kingdoms, Warfields hosted some of the most titanic battles in the region’s long history.
Settlements and Locations within the Unified Bands of the Warfields:
Law’s Forge
Stahzer
The “Unified Bands” of the Warfields were hardly unified at all, and were governed as a single entity simply because one ruler was usually powerful enough to either capture or coerce the leaders of rival bands. This overlord, known as the Guardian General, ruled through oppression. Generations of chaos and lawlessness left him little option.
Over time, the strongest of these bands would come to rule the whole. The title of Guardian General was one coveted by many murderous hands, and many have murdered indiscriminately to possess it. The greatest of these came to power in 572 CY. Hok, the last Guardian General of the Warfields, was an enigmatic and mercurial figure. A descendant of a long line of Aerdi soldiers, General Hok (CN male human Fighter L14), was revered among the bands of the Warfields and respected throughout the Combination. Men came from as far as the Rovers of the Barrens to fight under his standard. The southern nations viewed the man as a threat, a perception confirmed when he allied his unified bands with Molag in 578 CY. The alliance was short-lived. General Hok had no patience for the machinations of sorcerers. When Tehn sought to reclaim the northern lands of Grosskopf and the Fellands a year later, Hok used it as an excuse to cut his ties with the Horned Society. On the eve of a pivotal battle against the Shield Landers, General Hok and his men broke ranks with the Molag host and headed north across the Combination. Enraged by the betrayal, the Hierarchs turned their troops on the remaining bands of the Warfields. Hok and his riders pressed the Tehnas back across the Bluff Hills and into Tehn, from which neither he nor his companies ever returned.
When Rovers of the Barrens overran the northern border of the Horned Society in 578 CY, the Guardian General of Warfields was among those bandit lords who pledged their support to the Hierarchs. Shortly thereafter, the duke of Tenh’s troops crossed the Zumker and threatened Grosskopf. Warfields withdrew its support for the Horned Society, triggering a punitive invasion. The miniature kingdom was controlled by Molag until the Greyhawk Wars.
In spring 579 CY, Warfields and Wormhall, directed and aided by the Horned Society, attacked the western Shield Lands; they were joined after their initial successes by armies from Reyhu, Redhand, the Rift, and other minor kingdoms. The Shield Lands fell, and Warfields men looted their way to Critwall and Axeport. They withdrew in early 583 CY, concerned about a sudden change of orders sent to Horned Society troops (caused by Iuz, who had slain most of the Hierarchs and seized control of that realm). Warfields’ army joined Iuz’s, but it suffered gross losses at Steelbone Meadows massacre and rebelled. Warfields was then invaded and destroyed by Iuz’s hobgoblins. Warfields’ soldiers and citizens are scattered to the winds.
In 583 CY, Iuz crushed the Hierarchs and sent his troops east to capture and fortify the Combination of Free Lords. Decimated from their battles with the Shield Landers and the Horned Society, their glorious general vanished, the few remaining warriors of the infamous Warfields flocked to the banner of the Old One. They would see their vengeance delivered to the Shield Lands, and it is said the scattered bands came together as one for the sacking of Critwall in 584 CY.
The Warfields are currently ruled from the Shield Land fortress of Law’s Forge, a twin-keeped, walled village on the eastern bank of the Ritensa River. Established to monitor the armies of the Heirarchs in Molag, Law’s Forge became renowned for the exceptional weapons its smiths produced. Captured in their attempt to escape to southern Critwall, many of the artisans of Law’s Forge continue their work even now, under the watchful eyes of hobgoblin and orcish mercenaries. Though some continue to resist the magical charms cast by their captors, production of those marvelous weapons baring the hallmark of the place continues. These weapons, mundane or magical, are highly coveted by the warriors of Iuz and the southern Shield Landers.
Also of note is the dead village of Stahlzer. Long inhabited by the fiendish forces of Iuz, the influence of these infernal beings continues even after their banishment at the hands of the Archcleric of Rao. Cruelly disfigured, undead hobgoblins roam the surrounding fields, and worse are said to actually lay waiting in the shadows of the ruined village. Locals avoid the place even today, and even the armed companies of soldiers are hesitant to camp within sight of it.
Warfields is much less a center of military activity these days, consisting mostly of wilderness and ruined towns.
Bandit Kingdoms
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